I’m writing this sitting at the kitchen table (subtle I Capture the Castle reference) while the boys draw pirates with dot-a-dot markers. And yes, I should have known that the markers probably wouldn’t stay on the paper only, but I just looked up from typing that first sentence to find Fritz with one blue dot on his nose and one on each cheek, and Lars swiftly copying him with three markers at once. I had a briefish moment of wondering if I should just let them keep drawing on their faces with the non-toxic, fruity-smelling markers before grabbing a wet rag and telling them to go back to drawing on the paper.

One of the great things about having two little tiny people at home who don’t go to school (and it’s the middle of summer) is that there’s nothing we really have to, have to do during the day. I mean, yeah, we need to eat, but that’s about it. Some days, we really haven’t been getting out of our pajamas, like, all day.

We’re 90 percent sure he means salad dressing. He wanted salad dressing on his waffle. Lars loves salad dressing, on chicken, cheese, peppers, anything but lettuce, so who knows. Ben poured him some regular, non-salad syrup though.)

Twenty seven years ago. Driving through mountains. Cows. Horses. Tuning right at the big white building with penguins painted on it. Splashing in irrigation water, cool fresh from the canyon. Corn taller than me. Creamies on the porch. Croquet. Bouquets from the garden.

Hello. This is a blog. Here we will record the adventures and jokes of our lives.